Dr Iris Levin is an architect, urban planner, teacher and researcher. She has a passion for working with diverse communities and understanding the effects of migration on the built environment. She is interested in housing, social planning, migration and social diversity in cities.
Iris is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sustainability and Urban Planning. She gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne and joined RMIT University in 2021 after working at Swinburne University, in the community sector and Flinders University. Iris has a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning and a B.Arch. in Architecture, gained from the Technion, Israel.
Iris’s research focuses on issues around housing, the built environment, migration, diversity, disadvantaged communities and social mix in the city. She often uses qualitative and visual methodologies and analyses and has experience in longitudinal research. Iris is the lead editor of an edited book Migration and Urban transitions in Australia (Palgrave, 2022). In 2016 she published Migration, Settlement, and the Concept of House and Home (Routledge), focusing on migrant settlement practices in their homes in Australia and Israel, and since then has worked on research projects dealing with public housing, urban renewal projects and social mix, urban belonging and public urban space, and neighbour relations in high-density housing arrangements.
Iris has published extensively for academic and industry audiences and has presented her work in different forums and conferences. She has taught various undergraduate and postgraduate subjects in planning, social diversity and the built environment. Iris often contributes to community engagement panels and forums supporting local councils in engaging residents.
Dr Iris Levin serves as the Program Manager for the Master of Urban Planning and Environment (MC221) at RMIT University. In this role, she oversees the development of innovative and impactful educational programs, and engage with students during their studies.
In addition to her managerial responsibilities, Dr Levin teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in planning practice, housing policy, and the Master capstone research course, where she shares her passion for urban planning and housing practice and research with her students.
As a research supervisor, Dr Levin is interested in guiding students in the following areas:
Iris mostly uses qualitative methods in her research, including interviews, focus groups, visual analysis and poolicy analysis. She aims to encourage students to think critically about contemporary challenges and issues in the fields of social planning and housing.
Housing, social mix, social planning, social housing, migration and urban diversity

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